Olympics-Alpine skiing-Roger and Perko crash out with injury

ROSA KHUTOR, Russia, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Frenchman Brice Roger will be out of action for at least six months after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in the last training session for the men's downhill race at the Winter Olympics, a French team official said. On a day of tumbles on the demanding men's run at Rosa Khutor, Slovenia's Rok Perko broke his nose and will also miss Sunday's race, Slovenian team manager Dusan Blazic said. "He is not OK to compete tomorrow. The injury is a broken nose and scratches on the face and pain in the left shoulder, pain on the muscle. He just left the hospital," he said, adding it was not clear if Perko would be able to take part in his other event, the super-G, on Feb. 16. Having watched his team mate Marco Sullivan narrowly avoid a serious crash in Saturday's third practice run, U.S. veteran Bode Miller earlier described the course as potentially lethal. The incidents prompted concern at the end-of-day team captains' meeting. Chief race director Gunther Hujara said it had taken more than five minutes for a doctor to reach Perko after his crash, which left blood on the snow and caused a lengthy delay. Two minutes of the wait had been caused by the fact that the Slovenian team doctor had not had his skis on. "From tomorrow the doctors will be on skis, they will always be on alert," Hujara said. Blazic said there had also been language problems between Perko and the first responder to get to him, who was Russian. "He was sitting there on the snow and the guy who came to him is speaking Russian. He did not know what he was telling him. But also in the hospital, they are very good doctors but it's difficult to understand what they are saying." (Reporting by Mark Trevelyan and Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)